Bicyclists still account for fewer than 1 of all commuters. That will it for this friday edition of roves conjecture is based on fajts. Hillary clinton did go after a concussion in 2012. And she showed strange behavior in her testimony of the benghazi scandal. She had a mastery of facts all while wearing those stupid glasses. These things are like orthopedic shoes for your face. You would have to be brain damaged to wear those. Or nearsighted. And hillarys shown signs of mental frailty before. Look at these pants she wore in the 1970s. Girl, that is a traumatic fashion injury. Good morning, everything. It is may 16th. End of the week. With us on set to celebrate, washington anchor for bbc world news america and coauthor of the confidence code, katty kay. And also msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. And associated presss julie. First heres an instagram. Retiring as always. But willie, its just mind boggling the New York Times has conducted themselves in this. First of all the firing, and then the followup to the firing offering statements that you
would think a third rate politician would offer only to get punctured by organizations like the times. Do they not expect that their faults and misleading statements wouldnt get blown out of the water by people like ken auletta . Ken auletta we had on after his initial post. He updated that post yesterday. Part of the argument from the times is said it was not true that abramson was paid less than his predecessor. Ken with his sources found the numbers. And it turns out that as executive editor Jill Abramsons starting salary was 475,000 compared to bill kellers that same year 559,000. Im not good with math with alabama, but what is that . Like 70,000 . 80,000 . 85,000 difference for the same job. And you dig in deeper, and
doesnt ken also find out that jill actually made less money in earlier positions than men she was supervising. Ken auletta reports she made 398,000 which was less than that of a male managing editor for news operations. Go ahead. I was just going to say that in the newspaper hierarchy, theyre running the news gathering operations and supervising reporters would be expected to make more. Its a more crucial job. Obviously the other job is important too. But poorly handled, id say. And then you go, katty, even beyond the actual firing and the cause for the firing, the times puts out a statement from their fearless leader who says, well, her asking for more money had absolutely nothing to do with her being fired. And then ken auletta talks to the spokesperson for the times who at first argued there was no real compensation gap. But then conceded, quote, this was a contributing factor to the firing of abramson because it was part of a pattern. And that incident was jill finally giving up and having to hire a lawyer to go in and try to get equal pay at the New York Times. Its stunning that the times all day yesterday were telling everybody inside and outside of the newsroom that this had nothing to do with her being fired, the fact she came and actually asked to be paid the same as a man. And by last night, ken auletta and the new yorker, the spokesperson to the times admits this was a contributing factor because it was a pattern. Its a stunning story. Stunning mismanagement. Stunning mismanagement. And i think that the times is going to feel a backlash. I wouldnt be surprised if women subscribers to the times are looking closely this morning at their subscriptions to that newspaper. Certainly women within the organization ive spoken to say theyre blind sided by this. That theres a real sense theyve been let down as women in the organization. That theres still an old boys culture at the times. They are stunned. I had one New York Times reporter woman saying she was very depressed by what happened. Theyre very disappointed in the organization. The brutality of the fierg alone. How it was handled, the brutality of the firing. Two guys sitting together, one guy not liking how a woman inside was treating him. He complains. The other guy fires the lady who
had to get a lawyer to try to get paid the same. Who had been underpaid her entire stellar tenure at the New York Times. And then again the most damning blow for the men and women is that the times leadership put out statements that just werent truthful. The New York Times lied trying to cover up their own mess. Saying theres no compensation problem. Thats not a factor and it is now acknowledged to be a factor. The times frankly was being very cute in arthur salzburgers statement about the total compensation. Apparently one has to surmise lumping in any bonus she might have gotten any stock. Which of course are all dependent on what kind of year the newspaper is having. And so i know, for example, the Washington Post when managers bonus was cut in half or didnt come at all because of lean
years in the newspaper business. Keller, her predecessor was in that office for a lot of lean years. So its possible you could look at the figures and say her Stock Options eventually might have been worth more than his. But its salary to salary. Theyre being too clever. Yeah. When she has to go hire a lawyer, gene, i mean, she has to hire a lawyer to try to get equal pay for the position her male counterpart had. If you recall the way the firing was handled, you use the word brutality. And im afraid thats probably kind of right. Last time arthur salzburger had to fire an executive editor, that was after the worst plagiarism scandal in the newspaper. One of the worst in the modern history of american journalism along with ours of janet cook. But he was given a sendoff in the newsroom and the staff got to applaud and recitation of many triumphs as executive editor. Jill abramson had none of that. Eight Pulitzer Prizes in her years there. She didnt want to be there for that. You can mention it. You could rightly ask how the New York Times defends now that we have the salary numbers. That spokesperson for the New York Times says you dont look at salary, you look at total compensation which includes bonuses, stock grants, and other longterm incentives. You cant deny and the New York Times hasnt denied this yet that the baseline salary was much less. But you do look at the salary. The other things, its not like keller didnt have the opportunity. The paper just wasnt doing as well for the bonuses. When jill got there the paper started doing better. In large part because keller did some great work and set it on a strong path. But its not like they gave her i think theres also the issue, the fact that character has been raised in the case of Jill Abramson. I cant think of a senior male executive that has been fired on character grounds or where character has been raised as part of the issue. Theyre fired for competence or lack of success on the job but not for being described as pushy or aggressive. But certainly character has been raised in the case of this woman that are not generally raised. In an earlier story it was said she demanded to know why certain stories competitors had were not in the New York Times. Shocked. Im shocked. Lord forbid. I have never demanded that when i was an editor. I never asked my staff why a newspaper had a story. Who would do such a thing . All right. So julie, let me go to you here. I think its stunning that, you know, the times first says theres no real compensation gap, but then again said when a woman asked to get the same amount of money as her male counterpart for the same job, that is spokeswoman for the New York Times would say, quote, this incident was a contributing factor because it was part of a pattern. Thats men kick down doors and demand raises every day. Ive just never heard of any man being fired because he asked to be paid the same as coworker. Absolutely. The whole conversation is just so tough to even listen to as a younger woman in journalism. I look to people like jill,
other women who have risen through the ranks. Its still a very small number. The combination of the numbers that were seeing now on salary and as katty said, just the adjectives that are being used to describe her. These are adjectives that we hear come up with powerful women a lot. You always feel there is some sort of undertone there that if theyre being used about a man would be used as a positive description. I give the New York Times reporter who is are covering this story a lot of credit. I think theyre doing a really good job in a really tough situation where youre having to cover your own employer doing something that has not been handled well at all. Except for the fact, julie, that theyve got a guy from another magazine thats scooping them. Sure. But theyre trying to get information out of people that are obviously giving contradictory statements or when you look at the original statements using language that
is clearly very precise in order to put a more positive spin on these numbers. Again, i mean, Chris Christie had done Something Like this in his office, the times would have shredded him to pieces. And the times claiming disclosure. They have to do better on transparency. To point out one final quick thing, a few years ago i could have listed any number of female top editors in major papers in the country. There was a good long list. Theyre all gone. Theres one i can think of, mindy, editor of the miami herald. Great editor. But just a bunch of top female editors have either moved on or in the case of Jill Abramson have been dismissed. We need a column on whats happening at National Newspapers from you. Should we move on now to other news. Theres now a potential criminal component to the controversy surrounding the va hospital in phoenix. Federal prosecutors are looking into allegations the Medical Center kept a secret waiting list to cover up for long delays for veterans looking for care. The report claims it led to deaths. Those disclosures came from the Inspector General followed by the testimony. By Eric Shinseki. Shinseki was grilled by the Senate Veterans affairs committee. He told lawmakers hes as angry as anyone. Any allegation, any adverse
incident like this makes me mad as hell. I could use stronger language, but i wont. If any allegations are true, theyre completely unacceptable. If any are substantiated by the Inspector General, we will act. Do you believe that youre ultimately responsible for all this . I am. Would you explain to me after knowing all this information why you should not resign . Well, i tell you, senator, that i came here to make things better for veterans. I intend to continue this mission until im satisfied. Either that goal or im told by the commander in chief that my time has been served. Willie, he looked mad as hell there. Maybe he didnt show the fire some people wanted to see. Hes a four star general. Does he care about veterans . Of course he does. But right now his best isnt good enough. Its clear to me a lot of people think he should step aside, its not clear to me anyone could fix the bureaucracy at the va. As we saw those pictures yesterday with stacks and stacks of paper that looks like an office from 40 years ago, theres not a system in place to process these claims. We have great doctors working at the va, great medical personnel who in in cases, you know, fore went other careers to make good money. They cannot handle the sheer claims of people coming in and people are dying because of it. If you actually get in the system, there are positive things said about the system once youre in it. But its the backlog. And its the fact theyre operating in 19th century filing with stacks and stacks. Exactly. There are a few weve heard before of a few corners of the federal government that still operate this way in this system. But the va is a big thing. And with a vital and Important Mission. You know, that it hasnt had had more of a technological upgrade. And that it didnt anticipate that when, for example, were going to have two simultaneous foreign wars, were going to have a lot of veterans coming home, theyre going to need a kind of medical treatment that frankly wouldnt have needed in the past because a lot simply would have died in earlier wars. But because of quicker sort of triage that survived with traumatic brain injury and other kinds of problems, that the va needs to handle it. Youre right. The actual system when you get into it, is one of the most popular bits of the American Health care system. People always talk about european socialism when it comes to health care. But this governmentrun part of the Health Care System is one of the bits that people actually like when they manage to start getting into it. Yeah. They just arent having good luck getting into it. Well see what happens. Im going to ask before we go a break, gene, im looking at the front of the New York Times. It is a paper i read every day. If i had the Washington Post, im sure id read that too. But its a paper i read every day along with the wall street journal. I dont see any article on the b1. You say b1. Yeah. Youre right. Its not on the front page. It moved back to the Business Front today. To the left. Times seeks to reassure its staff. Okay. Has a strong okay. Strong counternarrative that emerged in the news media
including on morning joe. And the new yorker. So the question now is, you know, ken auletta, that came last night. If youre at the post and youre the editor of the editorial page and you find out the publisher of your news put out a statement that was false, whats the news meeting this morning . A little crazy. The times has been covering up the truth for the past two days about salary. Theyve been putting out statements that are clever. Do you not have a responsibility as a newspaper person to go after your paper . I can pretty much guarantee that this conversation is being had and has been had at the times. And that the newsroom of the times, no inside information here, but based on my experience
at the post, they absolutely feel they have a responsibility to a, get to the bottom of it, and b, to really do some probing journalism. Not an easy thing to do, but they have the mandate to do that or they better have the mandate to do that. At the post when weve had horrible, embarrassing things like the janet cook episode in 1981, you know, we set loose no holds barred to do what ended up being a withering indict of management. Which im sure margaret will end up doing at the times. Well, i am sure she would. But the question is daytoday how do you because youve got the greatest reputation in the world at this newspaper, the greatest reporters in the world at this newspaper and they have been set
up in the words of the grateful dead, set up and knocked down by bowling pins by their own publisher who is playing, you know, ceo coverup games. If im a media reporter at the New York Times and i see that post from ken auletta that directly contradicts what the publisher has said and what the times spokes people have been putting out, i blow my top. And i begin working you have to go after them, dont you . And you have to go after including those numbers that auletta got from the source. You go after those numbers. And, you know, you do it. I mean, i assume thats what theyre doing. And it came in time for the front page this morning. They certainly did. We are reading them last night. It should have been on the first page today. Which i why i asked the question. Theyre telling yesterdays story instead. If this were again coming from
trenton, it would have been on the first page today. Coming up on morning joe, if the nba thought clippers owner Donald Sterling would go gently into that night, think again. He plans to fight his punishment. Also this scene was months in the making. What Syrian Rebels pulled off against president assads army. And in news you cant use, idaho Gubernatorial Debate you wont want to miss. Why this primary candidate stole the show and why he was even on the debate stage last night. Willie, i may be wearing that after this weekend. But first heres bill kairns with a check on the forecast. But not wearing that outfit. Thats one of the funniest things ive seen. The rain this morning, it is just torrential coming down right through washington, d. C. Theres a sheets of rain, its like a tropical down pour right over the beltway. So if you can wait a bit before you head out, theres a lot of
water on the roads right now. Weve had almost 4 inches of rain at dulles. At reagan about an inch and a half. It is pouring as you can see. The green is the rain. The oranges and yell los are heavy rain. Again, thats going to be slowly passing to the east during your morning commute. But its going very slow. Next stop will be up towards wilmington, delaware. Let me try to break down the timing of all this wet weather for you. Flood watches are up from new york to d. C. The red and the oranges show the heaviest rain. Still over the chesapeake just entering philadelphia. By 5 00 p. M. Entering new york city. As you try to drive home from work and school today. Then in boston by early tomorrow morning. It will clear out by saturday afternoon. In other words, its a soaker. A lot of airport problems expected. Especially in new england as we go throughout the day. And out west, fire videos are
incredible. It was 102 in downtown l. A. One of the hottest temperatures ever recorded in l. A. Still fire danger today. It will be about 90 and then 70s over the weekend. Your forecast, today is the worth of it with the travel trouble in the east. By the time we get into saturday and sunday, the weather pattern finally returns to normal springlike conditions. 60s, 70s, 80s. Not expecting any tornado outbreaks any time soon. Just a bit of shower activity on sunday down there in the southeast. But bottom line, if youre traveling this morning around washington, d. C. , this is wha